LEFT leader Jean-Luc Melenchon will stand again for the French presidency next year, he announced on Sunday.

The France Unbowed leader told a TV show: “Yes, I am a candidate.” It would be his fourth run for the presidency — last time, in 2022, he missed out on a run-off place by just 1 per cent of the vote, coming third in the first round with 22 per cent to far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s 23 per cent.

Then winner Emmanuel Macron is not permitted to stand for a third consecutive term, while Ms Le Pen is fighting a legal battle for the right to stand following a five-year ban from running for office due to a conviction for embezzling EU funds.

France Unbowed is by far the largest force on the French left, with over half a million members. It was also the biggest single part of the New Popular Front (NPF) alliance of French socialists, communists and Greens which took first place in the last parliamentary elections, with 71 of the NPF’s 195 seats in the National Assembly.

However, tensions within the bloc emerged almost immediately — especially with the relatively right-wing French Socialist Party — and it is unclear how much of the left will rally behind his fourth presidential bid. The Socialist Party has backed France’s minority government in multiple votes since the 2024 election, leading Mr Melenchon to declare early last year that it was effectively no longer part of the NPF.